Born To Be Wild

The first day we spent entirely in the car. Traveling the roads in more or less the direction of Sequoia National Park. The bus has gas stove and fridge, and we filled the fridge with necessary supplies (wine and fruit).

The bus

The scenery changed dramatically on the way, from desert like conditions, to fertile green vegetation, and then to red fields of grape vines, to yellow-grey sand and rock. We arrived in Sequoia in the middle of the night and found a camping.

There was only two other cars, so we went to speak with some youths with a campfire. They were Swedes. Who else would go camping in the middle of December? The Swedes were pretty cool, two of them had travelled from New York, down the East Coast to New Orleans and then to San Diego. On bikes. We shared mashmellows and stories.

In the morning we hiked to see the sequoias. The biggest trees in the world. And they are BIG!

Video of Sequoias. You don't believe how big they are...

In the evening we drove to Yosemite and camped in a nice camping spot. It was cold, 0 degrees-Farhrenheit. When camping in a national park you're supposed to store all food, or anything with the smallest recemblance to food, in a bear safe metal box. Because the bears might break into the car otherwise. The bears are supposed to sleep in winter, but still, I lay awake for a long time listening to the sounds from outside the car. I am sure that I heard a bear once, or some animal, sniffing outside, and I hurridly woke up Hippie, but our voices scared it-whatever it was-away.

We had arrived at midnight and not seen anything in the dark. So in the morning we were surprised over the beautiful view. There was a river just outside the camping with water that tasted way better than the tap water!

We drove down to Yosemite Valley and marvelled at the sights of the mountains. And then we dared to hike up to see Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, with just a few hours left before sunset. The climb was steep, and soon the legs felt like lead, but it was worth the pain and the effort when we got there. While gazing at the falls and having a snack, a big chunk of snow fell down from the cliffs with a tremendous thunder. We waited for a while, cameras ready in hand, to capture the next falling chunk, but that Kodak moment was lost on us, since the sun was setting rapidly and we had a long way back.

El Capitan and the Half Dome in Yosemite Valley

I've heard that it is possible for a person to live without internet for up to a week, but we found the public library and borrowed computers to connect with the world. I have a few gigabytes of memories in my camera and I will upload pictures as soon as I get a stable wifi-connection...